


The One Moment that Matters

by chamel



Series: The God of Thunder and the Woman Made of Light [1]
Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: But not in a creepy way, Canon Compliant, Combined Powers, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Early Morning Fights, F/M, No Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, POV Multiple, Photon Blasts, Thor loves women, Thunder and Lightning, except what was in the trailer, in a respectful way, maybe too much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-07 00:37:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18399569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chamel/pseuds/chamel
Summary: Carol isn't the only one who can't sleep, and she makes some interesting discoveries fighting with Thor in the early morning hours.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this whole series before I saw Endgame. This work is roughly canon compliant but spending more time at the compound; the rest of the series spins off into it's own timeline after the first act of the movie.
> 
> ****
> 
> Title taken from the Ok Go song "One Moment"
> 
> My first work in this fandom. I dreamed the beginning of this and couldn't say no to inspiration.

It was still dark when Carol padded down the stairs to the first floor of the compound. So apparently on Earth it was dark when she woke up, as she always did, much earlier than most other people. She kind of liked the dark rather than the shining early morning light that always reminded her of Hala. That planet haunted her dreams enough without being reminded of it when she was awake. The Avengers compound was quiet; everyone else must have been asleep or at least laying in their beds silently in the pre-dawn hours. The silence was less good, since it left her alone with her thoughts. She needed to find a room where she could let off steam without disturbing the others. Nat had mentioned that the training rooms were soundproofed thanks to Tony, so finding those was her goal this morning.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and rounded a corner into the kitchen where she turned on a light and discovered someone had been standing in the dark. It took her a beat (after all, she just met all of them yesterday), but the broad muscular shoulders and arms unmistakably belonged to the god of lightning. Or was it thunder? She couldn’t remember. He was quite the specimen, though, and her eyes lingered appreciatively on his form for a moment before he whirled to face her in surprise. He was eating something out of a jar with a spoon.

“Peanut butter?” she asked in disbelief, raising an eyebrow.

“Mmph,” Thor replied as he tried to swallow and clear his mouth to speak. He looked a bit sheepish. “Nothing else like it in all the nine realms. It’s been ages since I’ve had any. Don’t tell Steve I’ve eaten all of it?”

She smirked and walked over to him, plucking the spoon out of his hand and digging out a glob of the gooey food. For as long as it had been since Thor had any, she could guarantee it had been longer for her. Earth food was almost a distant memory at this point. “I won’t tell if you won’t,” she said conspiratorially.

It was salty and nutty and slightly sweet, and he was right: there really wasn’t anything else like it. She opened her eyes and saw him staring at her with that goofy wide grin of his.

“I’m guessing you didn’t come down here to eat peanut butter,” Thor said.

Carol shook her head. “No. I don’t sleep very long hours. You?”

The grin faltered on his face and his gaze turned inward. “Not anymore.”

She had been out of the loop for a long time, galaxies away at the very edge of the range of the pager. She had no idea what had happened to Asgard, but it seemed like it was nothing good.

Thor saw her looking concerned but confused. “I’ve lost everything recently. My family. My home. If there’s anything left of my people I don’t know where they are. And just when I thought I had nothing else to lose, I lost more.” He stared hard at the peanut butter jar, avoiding her gaze.

She put a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her. The pain in his eyes was obvious, and she felt a lot of empathy.

“But now I guess I really do have nothing to lose,” he halfheartedly joked.

“That makes two of us,” Carol replied wryly, “C’mon, let’s clear out the nightmares that woke us up. Wanna fight?”

****

Thor led her to the training rooms, but he wasn’t sure about this. He had grown up sparring with Lady Sif, and had done some fighting with Valkyrie on the ship before Thanos found them, but they were Asgardians. “Hard to perish,” as Korg had said. Carol was human, although she talked a big talk. Thor had to admit he was curious. He could almost sense something different about her, some kind of familiar energy, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

Then there was his curiosity about her nightmares. Until her offhand mention of them, he wouldn’t have guessed that was what brought her down to the kitchen. She didn’t seem distraught or even vaguely perturbed. What had this woman seen that nightmares were a way of life? Someone who didn’t flinch at a large axe flying past her head, he guessed.

He opened the door and gestured her inside the capacious training space. She nodded appreciatively at the setup and shrugged off her jacket. Underneath she wore a figure-hugging black tank top and loose pants. Her hair was twisted into a messy knot on the back of her head. She was lean but muscular, and he wondered what secrets she was holding onto. Thor closed the door and peeled his hoodie off, following her barefoot onto the mats. Carol stretched her neck from side to side and gave him an extremely mischievous grin.

“Let’s do this,” she said, raising up her fists in guard position. She didn’t hardly give him time to prepare before she lept at him in an attack.

He blocked her oncoming fist and swung around his own attack. She parried and danced backwards. Thor bounced up and down a bit, waiting for another attack, which came swiftly. Damn, she was _fast_. Block, attack, parry, attack. Their movements were fluid, evenly matched. Thor had been holding back a bit, since she was human, but clearly that wasn’t strictly necessary. Now he pressed forward and caused her to retreat toward the edge of the mat.

“You’re quite a fighter,” he said in admiration.

Carol smirked as she blocked another attack, “You’re not half bad yourself.”

Just when Thor thought he had the upper hand, she grabbed his attacking arm and swung around behind him, rolling over his back and wrapping her arm around his neck from behind. He ducked down quickly and leaned forward, throwing her off balance so that she rolled off his back. Then he kicked her in the stomach, sending her backward. She was hunched slightly, doubled over, and Thor was worried he had hurt her.

“Are you all right?” he said in concern, coming over to her with his guard down.Then she looked up at him with a grin on her face. A powerful undercut came out of nowhere and socked him in the gut. 

“That was sneaky!” he accused as they began another bout of attacks and parries.

She shrugged, “I’m not afraid to use any advantages at my disposal.” She ducked as Thor lunged at her.

Thor had to admit that she packed a fierce punch. Just keeping up with him put her out of the range of most humans, although from the way she talked there was a lot more than kicks and punches in her arsenal. This was fun and all, but he could use a breather. He grabbed her arm and twisted it around behind her back. The motion pulled her in close, her body pressed tightly against his. He could feel her heart beating against his chest. He thought she could probably feel his own racing heart, which was certainly caused by the exercise and not by the extremely attractive woman who was basically in his arms. Heat radiated off her body—was it more heat than normal?—into his, and he was finding it harder than usual to catch his breath.

Then she dropped unexpectedly out of his grip and swept his feet, laying him out on the mat on his back. Before he knew it she was straddling him and sitting on his chest to prevent him from getting up. She grinned down at him triumphantly, her face flushed and eyes sparkling. Several strands of hair had fallen down in front of her face and she blew at them to push them away. She had her hands pinning his shoulders to the floor, and he realized that somehow his hand had ended up resting on her thigh. Her hand slipped off one shoulder, bringing her face closer to his. She was breathing as hard as he was, but she didn’t have a person on her chest. Thor’s eyes dropped to her body and immediately realized that wasn’t the best idea; her tank top was plastered to her torso with sweat and left little to the imagination. Yeah, this position wasn’t helping him catch his breath in more ways than one.

“Truce?” he managed.

“Yeah, truce.” She pushed herself off of him, then offered him a hand to get up. He grabbed it, and then a mischievous idea came into his head. Still half crouched, he lunged toward her and grabbed her leg, sending her backwards as he stood. As she was falling he saw her right arm start glowing; then a blast of energy hit him square in the chest, sending him flying back into the wall across the room. 

Well, that was unexpected.

****

Carol hadn’t meant to hit him that hard, but it was a reflex. He’s the one who tripped her on a truce. Her expression of concern had a large dose of “oops” as he slammed into the far wall. At least it was padded? He was supposed to be a god or something, surely he wasn’t injured. Thor slumped down to the floor and she saw tendrils of lightning jump around on his body. Her eyes went wide as a bolt of lightning came flying toward her. When it hit her, however, it did something completely unexpeted. The jolt of electricity hit her solidly but didn’t knock her down or even make her stumble. Instead her whole body lit up and her hair stood up.

This was something new. She seemed to have absorbed the lightning, and she could feel the extra power coursing through her body. Thor was staring at her with his mouth hanging open. She grinned at him. “Ooh, that’s tingly!”

She needed to find an outlet for this energy, so she picked a punching bag hanging in a corner of the room and discharged. The bag was completely vaporized. She looked at Thor with a smile of amazement on her face. “That was awesome!!”

He was still gaping at her in disbelief. “Did you know you could do that?”

“No!” Carol replied, “That’s totally new!”

“Wow.” Thor got up and walked over to her, still not believing his eyes.

Carol raised an eyebrow at him and folded her hands in front of her chest. “But of course you didn’t know that was going to happen…”

“Well after the blast you gave me, it seemed like you’d be ok,” Thor said defensively, but then a bit more sheepishly, “and it was kind of unintentional.”

“Same,” she admitted, “no hard feelings?” She stuck out her hand, and Thor grabbed it, giving her his goofy grin.

“Never.”

Thor pulled on her arm and wrapped her into a hug, which she definitely didn’t expect. He was a good hugger, and why wouldn’t he be with those arms. She lingered a little longer before extricating herself. Her face was hot and her heart was beating fast, but that was just the workout. Right?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short middle chapter before we get to the juicy stuff.

She found him in the kitchen a few more mornings, then Carol started just coming to his room. She’d knock softly a couple of times, trying not to wake the others, and he’d open the door grinning and dressed in training clothes. They would do some hand-to-hand combat to warm up, then Thor would hit her with increasingly large amounts of lightning. So far no one had noticed the missing punching bags, but it seemed like Steve was getting suspicious. They were experimenting with her discharging while he was powering her, but it was starting to wear on the fixtures in the room. Tony’s soundproofing had done admirably, but they kept the most intense trials to days when it was raining and building-rattling thunder could be expected.

One stormy morning they went bigger than they ever had before. They were outside this time so the energy discharge wouldn’t damage the building. The lightning bolts were arcing all over Thor’s body, and he started funneling them into Carol. The electricity coursed through her veins, from the tips of her fingers to her toes. She started converting it to photon power and her body lit up like a torch. Her feet lifted off the ground and she rose into the air. The power extended outward and enveloped Thor, lifting him off the ground as well. They were surrounded, just the two of them in a cocoon of energy 10 feet off the ground. In there, time seemed to stop and the outside world was cut off. One moment stretched into ages. Every blast sent a tingly shockwave through her body. Thor shot another, and another, and another. She felt like she might burst. Eventually she gave him the hand sign they had set up to stop. He did, but the energy connection was so strong between them that lightning kept arcing from his body to hers without any help. Carol reached above her head and discharged a truly massive photon blast into the early morning sky. The sheer force pushed them both backward toward the earth until they were just a few feet above the ground. She wondered what Thor was doing, but she couldn’t look away, she had to keep all of her focus on controlling the blast.

Finally the energy was discharged, and they dropped back to the earth below. They were both laughing ecstatically and hugged each other tightly.  
“Did you see that!” “That was incredible!” “I can’t believe it…!” they spoke over each other.

From behind them came a slow clap, and they both jumped toward the sound. Steve stood in the doorway, a bemused expression trying to suppress one of amazement.

“Thanks for not destroying the whole building,” he said wryly, “but hey, I think we’re ready to take out Thanos.”

Carol and Thor both looked at him awkwardly. How long had he been standing there? Not that there was anything wrong with what they were doing, but it had felt somehow… intimate. Carol hugged her body, damp with sweat in the chill morning air.

“I should hit the shower,” she and quickly retreated into the building.

Steve shot Thor a curious look. “How long has this been going on?”

Thor shrugged, avoiding eye contact. “A few weeks,” he said, attempting a nonchalant attitude, “We started doing some training in the mornings, and it… evolved.”

“Well, don’t let me intervene,” Steve laughed, “that was something special.”


	3. Chapter 3

After that, she didn’t come by his room in the mornings. She didn’t answer his knocks on her door. Nor did she show up in the kitchen, where he waited every morning. She was unmistakably avoiding him. When everyone would come together she’d stay on the other side of the room, avoiding his gaze. Thor didn’t know what had happened. Was she somehow embarrassed to have been seen with him? She had seemed happy after they were successful with the huge energy transfer, but maybe it had bad after-effects? He wished he could talk with her, but he couldn’t manage to get her alone. Over the last few weeks the time they spent together had been a bright spot in an otherwise dark time. He had lost so many people recently, he was starting to feel like he was getting close to someone again. But now she was pushing him away, and it hurt. Thor spent a lot of time thinking about their time together; the more he thought about Carol the more he realized he was falling for her. He replayed that last training session in his mind over and over again, both during and the aftermath. Steve wasn’t wrong when he said there had been something special. Thor had felt a deep connection between them in that one moment, and he knew Carol felt it too. So what had happened? He couldn’t figure it out.

Carol had starting avoiding Thor for reasons she couldn’t really articulate. Their morning training sessions had been the highlights of her days, and she had started to feel like she belonged here. But she could feel herself getting closer to Thor, and that was terrifying. Since she had left Earth that second time, since she left her best friend behind again to save worlds who couldn’t save themselves, she avoided getting too close to anyone. She never stayed anywhere too long, so it made sense. She had her fun, of course; it wasn’t hard to find a good time for a night. But a close friendship with someone, a real _relationship_ with someone, that was best avoided. For the first time in a long time she felt at home with the Avengers, like she belonged. It would make it harder to leave after this was done, and she would definitely be leaving again. Thor giving her puppy dog eyes across every room was certainly not helping. Then there was the last morning they had spent together. The connection they had in that one moment was intense. When it was just the two of them she could pretend that it wasn’t real, that it had no consequences, but when Steve had shown up and acknowledged what they were doing it became too much. So she shut Thor out, put on her best frigid demeanor, anything to reverse these troublesome feelings growing inside her.

She had found a training room hidden back on the opposite side of the compound. It wasn’t as nice as the one they had used, but it was far away and she was unlikely to attract attention. Every morning she would get ready and unbidden, thoughts of Thor and their sessions would come to her mind. Then she would beat an old punching bag until she was so exhausted she couldn’t think of anything but how tired she was. One morning she hit the bag so hard she split open the skin across her knuckles. She swore as blue blood splattered across the bag and dripped down onto the floor. The pain was kind of a nice additional distraction, but she was making a mess. Reluctantly she wrapped her bleeding hand and went to the kitchen so she could rinse it off. She plunged her hand into the stream of icy cold water and tried to come up with her plan of avoidance for the day. Late to breakfast, team meeting she couldn’t miss, retreating to her hidden training room in the afternoon. As she was bending over the sink she became aware that someone had come up behind her. Her body tensed, every muscle ready for action. Then she smelled him, the slightly spicy, musky scent tinged with ozone she had become very familiar with.

“Thor,” she said, still tensed.

He had now come so close that she could feel his body brushing hers. He slipped his arms around her waist and bent his face near her ear. She could feel his beard brushing her neck.

“I’ve been looking for you,” he whispered into her neck. His warm breath left goosebumps where it hit her skin.

“I know.” She was full of conflict. She wanted to push him away, and she wanted to pull him close. She settled on doing nothing, her body wound as tight as a spring in his arms.

He pulled his head back, but he didn’t let go of her. “Our morning training sessions were my favorite time of day.”

“Mine too,” she whispered, barely audible. At first she thought he hadn’t heard. 

Finally, he said, “Did I do something wrong?” It sounded pained.

Carol didn’t know what to tell him. She stared fixedly at her injured hand in the sink. The sink was still running, and the water pounding on the wound was making it raw. She focused on the pain, anything to push away her emotions.

“Carol?”

She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s not you. You didn’t do anything. It’s me. That day, we were so… close. In that one moment, nothing mattered and everything mattered. It’s just… too much. I can’t… ”

Thor grabbed her more tightly, and she felt her body relax into his arms. He leaned down again and she felt his lips brush her neck. He peppered her skin with light kisses that left her skin on fire.

“This is a bad idea,” she said.

“On the contrary,” he replied between kissing her, “I think it is an excellent idea.”

“Thor…” she began, but she didn’t know how to finish. _I want you_ , she thought, but she couldn’t say it.

Reaching in front of her, he pulled her hand out of the water and turned off the tap, then grabbed a towel and wrapped her hand. When he was done she turned in his arms and finally looked into his eyes. They were sparkling and a faint grin played on his lips. _This really is a terrible idea_ , she told herself, but she found that she didn’t care anymore.

“Thor,” she said again, and he looked at her expectantly, “kiss me.”

He did not have to be asked twice. He leaned down and kissed her softly at first, but she pushed into him hungrily. Her tongue darted into his mouth, and she grabbed his lower lip in her teeth. He responded by smothering her mouth in his kiss, and he pulled her body tighter against him with one arm while his other hand cupped her jaw. Her uninjured hand slipped around his waist and up under the loose hem of his shirt, sliding over his back. She felt his smooth bare skin tremble under her touch. Her heart was racing and there was a heat growing in her abdomen. Then there was that tingly feeling again and she realized that little arcs of lightning had started jumping from Thor’s body to hers. She pulled back and laughed, watching the lightning interact with photons sizzling off her skin. 

“That’s new,” Thor said, laughing as well. He looked down at her and an expression of concern came over his face. “Your hand…”She looked down to see the towel had fallen off her injured hand and blue blood was dripping down onto the floor. “Shit!” she exclaimed, snatching up the towel and covering the wound. “I guess I need to get this actually wrapped.” 

Thor took her good hand in his and led her down the hall toward the rooms. “C’mon, I have bandages.”

He opened his door and she followed him in. “Wait here,” he said, sitting her on the bed and going into the bathroom. He emerged carrying a roll of gauze and some ointments. Sitting down next to her, he tenderly unwrapped the towel and wiped away the blood.

“So…” he began.

“Why is my blood blue?” she finished, smirking at him.

Thor nodded and gave a small laugh, “Yeah. I thought you were human?”

“I am, but I got a Kree blood transfusion after my accident, and apparently that’s a stain you can’t get rid of.” She could hear the bitterness in her own voice. 

He had finished wrapping her hand in the gauze and he taped it securely, then he raised a hand to her face. It had been a long time since she opened up to anyone, told anyone her story. It wasn’t easy for her, but when she looked into his eyes she felt she could tell him anything.

“My turn,” she said, breaking the reverie, “why are your eyes two different colors?”

“This one,” he said, pointing to the orange one, “is bionic. My sister, the goddess of death, gave me this scar and took my eye. The rabbit gave me the new one.”

She gently rubbed her thumb over the scar crossing his cheek. “Nightmares?”

“Surprisingly I dream about worse things.”

She nodded and leaned over against him, lost in her own thoughts. _Was_ this a good idea? Was it possible that two damaged people could make each other whole again?

She felt Thor’s hand on her cheek again and turned toward him. He kissed her, slowly, tenderly. She leaned in and snaked her fingers through his hair, pushing him deeper into the kiss. Sitting side-by-side was getting annoying, but other options seemed a bit forward. Was this moving too fast? It was a funny thought to her considering the number of one-night stands she had no compunction about, but she wanted this to be different. Well, it was morning. Thor had grabbed her far hip and was pulling her closer, so she decided _what the hell_. Without breaking the kiss she rotated and moved to sit straddled across his lap, his hand sliding down her thigh as he pulled her over his body. This was certainly more comfortable. Thor was pulling her closer, closer, and she pushed herself into his arms. There was a firmness growing beneath her, stretching his pants. He slid his hands up under her still-damp tank top and peeled it off, revealing her sports bra beneath. Now he was kissing her neck and working downwards, slipping one strap of the bra off her shoulder as he went.

There was a knock at the door, and they froze. A few moments went by, and they barely breathed. The knock came again. “Thor?” Steve’s voice called.

A few more moments passed. “Maybe he’ll go away,” Thor whispered.

“Thor, I need to talk to you,” Steve called again, “I know you’re awake.”

Thor swore quietly under his breath. “Sorry…” he whispered to Carol as she climbed off of him. His face was flushed and he was breathing heavily, and she wondered how he was going to be able to act naturally. “Bathroom?” he suggested, and she nodded as she headed into it and pulled the door closed behind her.

****

Thor took a few deep breaths to settle himself and walked to the door. He opened it and nodded to Steve. “Hey, uh, what’s up?” He felt like he was failing miserably at being normal, and Steve gave him a look that was bordering on openly suspicious.

“We need to talk about Carol,” Steve started, and Thor swallowed hard. 

“What, uh… what about her?”

“I can tell she’s been avoiding you ever since I saw you two together that morning,” Steve explained. “Look man, I’m sorry if something I did caused a rift between you, but the fact is that we are going to need you guys to work together if we're going to beat Thanos. So whatever issues you are having, you’re going to have to fix them.”

Thor nodded as nonchalantly as possible. “Yeah, of course, it’s nothing really, we’ll get it straightened out.”

Steve was still looking at him suspiciously. “Good,” he said. He glanced around the room and his eyes landed on something. Thor followed his gaze and saw the black tank top discarded on the bed. Then Steve’s eyes were on Thor again, more suspicious than ever.

“Ah, yeah,” Thor started, “that was in my laundry, must have gotten mixed up, you know how it is…”

A faint rattle came from inside the bathroom. “Someone else here, Thor?” Steve asked.

“What? Of course not, I…” Thor searched for an excuse, “I failed to close the window last night and the wind must have knocked something over.” That sounded plausible, right?

Steve was on high alert these days, as if agents of Thanos were watching and they would figure out the Avengers’ plan. Thor was pretty sure Thanos wasn’t even considering that they’d hit him again, but it was no use telling that to Steve. Without saying anything, Steve stepped toward the bathroom door and put his hand on the handle to open it.

“Wait…!” Thor said, but the door was open. They both looked inside, but it was empty. The small window hung open, a chill breeze gusting through it.


	4. Chapter 4

It was way too cold outside to be running around in a sports bra. Her skin started to glow faintly as she stoked a bit of internal photon fire to keep warm. Having heard Thor try to explain away her tank top, Carol figured she had better get out of there and quick. The window in the bathroom was just big enough, and though it was on the second floor she coasted down smoothly to the ground. Now to get back inside without anyone seeing her. If she went back in through the training rooms she could pretend that’s why she was missing a shirt.

Finally, she found the external door to the training rooms ( _why_ did this compound have to be so gigantic?) and slipped in. The rooms were dark, and she moved quickly through them. She listened briefly at the door to the hall and all was quiet. It was still pretty early and most of the Avengers would still be asleep. More confident of not being seen, she opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

“Carol?” a voice behind her said.

Carol whirled to see Nat looking at her quizzically. “Ah, hi.”

“Doing some early morning training?” Nat asked, looking her up and down.

“Yeah, I like to wake up early and clear my head.” Carol looked down at her bare torso, “I don’t usually just wear a sports bra, I—uh—didn’t think I’d run into anyone.”

Nat smirked. “Don’t worry about it. It’s nice to have another woman around again. Just me and the guys since… since the snap.” Nat faltered a bit, thinking of lost friends. “They’re great guys, but I’d suggest a shirt from now on. I hear Thor is single now, don’t want him getting any ideas,” she winked.

Carol laughed awkwardly. “Definitely good advice, thanks.”

“I’ll let you get to the shower, since I guess that’s where you’re headed. See you at the meeting?”

“I’ll be there.”

Carol hurried off back down the corridor to the living quarters, hoping she wouldn’t run into anyone else. Fortunately, the rest of the halls were empty. As she shut the door to her room she leaned back against it, closing her eyes and breathing a sigh of relief. As she tried to clear her head, memories of Thor’s kisses on her skin intruded and she flushed. She shook her head headed into the room, making for the bathroom. A cold shower sounded good right about now.

“You made it,” said a deep voice from the shadows, causing her to jump a mile.

“Jesus, how did you get in here?!” she shouted, putting a hand on her chest as the surge of adrenaline faded.

“You didn’t lock the door,” Thor pointed out, “I wanted to make sure you were ok.”

“I’m fine,” she breathed. “I assume you got rid of Rogers?”

Thor nodded. “I don’t think he suspects anything.”  
  
“Of course he suspects _something._ He’s not an idiot. As long as he doesn’t suspect _this,_ ” she said, pointing back and forth between the two of them. She turned back toward the bathroom so she could turn the shower on, which served a dual purpose since the spraying water muffled their conversation. When she returned, Thor was holding out her black tank top.

“I brought this back,” he offered.

“Thanks,” she said as she walked over to retreive it. She grabbed the shirt, but instead of letting go Thor used it to pull her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist. He was grinning broadly as he leaned in to kiss her. For a moment she didn’t resist, she gave into the kiss, but she had things to do. Pulling away, she protested, “Thor, I have to get ready for this meeting. And so you do. Both of us coming in late is unlikely to send the right message.”  
  
Thor was not deterred. He was still holding her tightly, and had started kissing her neck. “Mmm, we could shower together? Save some time.”  
  
Carol laughed as she pushed out of his arms and retreated toward the bathroom. “That would definitely _not_ save any time.”

“And what is the right message?” he called after her after a minute.

“What?” she called from the bathroom.  
  
“The right message. You said us coming in late wouldn’t send the right message.”

Carol turned back to look at him. His grin was gone. “Well, it’s just…”

“Just that you don’t want anyone to know about us,” he interrupted accusingly.

 _Why_ did they have to have this conversation right now? Well she was nothing if not direct. “We have bigger fish to fry right now. We don’t need any distractions.”

Thor crossed his arms in front of his chest. “So now this is a distraction?”  
  
“No!” She sighed as she figured out what she wanted to say. This was all much more complicated that she ever thought it would be. “It’s just… all of this has happened very quickly. I mean, it literally just happened. Can we just take some time to figure it out? And then we can tell them, but… maybe not by announcing it at a meeting.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” he admitted.

“Now get out of here so I can shower.” She started pushing him toward the door, but he stopped just in front of it and would not be moved.

“Wait, I have something important to tell you.”

Her breath caught in her throat. It seemed way fast for any important declarations. Instead he pulled her into his arms again and kissed her. She kissed him back eagerly, though a corner of her mind nagged at her about the time. Surely they had time for a kiss. But when Thor started trying to peel her bra off she smacked his arm playfully, laughing.

“Cut it out or I’m going to feed you to a flerkin!”

Thor smirked at her. “You wouldn’t dare,” he replied, but he left the room anyway.

****

Carol was the last one to enter the command center room, her hair still wet. “What’s the status?” she asked as she walked around the table.

“Thanos is here,” Nat explained as she pulled up a planet on the heads-up display. “And has been there for several days now. He may be weak from using the stones, he may be regrouping.”  
  
“We need to hit him now,” Steve said.

Bruce looked unsure. “This still seems like a bad idea to me.”

“This may be our best shot. I say we take it,” Rhodey put in.

“You guys are a bunch of idiots, but what the hell—I’m in,” said Rocket. Despite everything she had seen around the galaxy, a talking raccoon still weirded Carol out.

“I agree with the rabbit,” came Thor’s answer, “except not about the idiot part.” He winked at Carol.

 _This man is terrible at secrets_ , she thought, trying to keep from rolling her eyes. She leaned over the heads-up display, pretending to ignore him. “No use sitting around here,” she said, “let’s go get him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter of this work but I have two more parts of this story planned, one spicy and one angsty/sappy. Stay tuned!


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